England’s Six Nations squad has suffered a blow to its ranks this week as the BBC reports that Northampton prop Alex Corbisiero will miss the competition after needing to undergo knee surgery.
The 27-year-old has only played one game since the end of last season and so this comes as unwelcome news for the England international.
Northampton coach Jim Mallinder believes that while Corbisiero main target is to regain his match fitness and focus on earning his place back in the Saints side.
“Six Nations is a very long way off for him, I think his focus is on getting himself fit and back in the Northampton squad. “We have to keep positive with him, you don’t chuck injured lads over the boat, you do whatever you can to get them fit as quickly as possible.”
While the operation is not major, it is more than likely that Corbisiero will be out until at least the new year, but Mallinder remains hopeful that he will have his prop back in action as quickly as possible.
“It’s an operation which is just a bit of a clean out, nothing major, he just has a bit of a niggle,”It’s not good for him, he is being positive and we are being positive. The surgeon is pretty positive he can sort him out, so he will go under the knife and hopefully he’ll be back sooner rather than later.”
This news will undoubtedly be hard to stomach for Northampton who have not been in their best form so far this season, despite overcoming last season’s runners-up Bath this weekend.
